The Membership Table, Donna Whittlesey

Women's Studies Quarterly

In the month before the First NWSA Convention, the National Women's Studies Association doubled the number of memberships received in the first four months of the 1979 dues year. On the first day of the Convention, 100 more members joined, followed by another SO to 75 in the remaining days of the meeting, when we were not able to staff the membership table full time. Returning to the National Office, we found we had received approximately 5O additional memberships, and numerous requests for membership information.

As of June 1979, this year's NWSA membership was already more than twice ...

Coordinating Council Meetings At The Convention, Kay Towns

Women's Studies Quarterly

The National Women's Studies Association's Coordinating Council met before, during, and after the First NWSA Convention to prepare for and carry out its conference-related responsibilities; to elect its leadership for the coming year; and to begin clarification of priorities, functions, and tasks growing out of the experience of this year's Convention.

These several Council sessions included the participation of newly elected caucus representatives to the Council, and that of many regional Council members-elect, whose formal terms of office will begin at the February 1980 Council meeting. A full listing of the 1980 Council will appear in a ...

Impressions Of Kansas, Maryjo Wagner

Women's Studies Quarterly

Those of us involved in the machinery and politics of the Convention and of our regions were the ones to whom complaints were registered. We were the ones who heard the concerns of caucuses, the ones who listened anxiously to angry voices at the microphones during the Delegate Assembly, the ones who took notes at the final evaluation session. Distressed by the anger we heard and exhausted from the hectic pace, we reacted defensively. After all, we had worked hard. We deserved strokes, not criticism. Maybe the Convention was not perfect, but we did try, and it was, after all ...

Reflections On The Convention, Christine Grella

Women's Studies Quarterly

Looking back at the Convention, I find myself exhilarated—but also confronted with the issues and questions that were raised. Would our differences divide us irreparably, or would they be our source of strength? Could we attain our stated purpose of encompassing the needs of diverse groups: community educators, elementary and secondary school teachers, staff, students, community and four-year college instructors—each with different experiences of women's studies?

Notes On The Lesbian Caucus At Kansas, Nan Cinnater

Women's Studies Quarterly

Members of the Lesbian Caucus spent hundreds of hours at Lawrence working to ensure that the caucus can become a viable, active network for lesbians in women's studies all over the country. Accomplishments included the formation of a fourteen-member steering committee, a fundraising committee, and a taskforce to compile and distribute to NWSA members educational materials on lesbianism. Plans include a newsletter, national networking through liaisons with the NWSA regions, and international networking and support through international periodicals and organizations. (We thought we ought to start with relatively modest goals.)

Editorial: The Convention Issue: A Time To Reflect And To Look Ahead, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

THE CONVENTION ISSUE: A TIME TO REFLECT AND TO LOOK AHEAD

For the first time since we began publishing in 1972, we have devoted an entire issue to a single subject: the First Annual Convention of the National Women's Studies Association. Our motivation was dual: this was an historic occasion and we felt a responsibility to record history; this was the first of a series and we wanted to begin the necessary reflection for the Second Convention, to be held May 16-20, 1980, on the Bloomington campus of Indiana University.

Women's Studies Quarterly

This final panel, summing up and looking ahead at the end of the First NWSA Convention, borrowed part of its title from the collection of essays on feminism and education Women and the Power to Change [1975]. Contributors to that volume, and other writer-organizers joining them here, were asked to reflect on their work of the early '70s and to offer their analyses—and their visions—for the '80s.

In Defense Of Aid, Kathleen A. Staudt

Women's Studies Quarterly

The trashing of the Agency for International Development and the public scapegoating by my "sisters" at the National Women's Studies Association Convention is an experience which must, I feel, be noted in the annals of the conference.

Recognizing that U.S. women's studies programs tend to be relatively parochial, AID's and, in particular, the Women in Development office's concern was to bring an international development dimension, including the participation of Third World women, to the wide array of panels. On one panel—"U.S. and Third World Women: What Are the Connections?"—were researchers who discussed ...

Sessions On Oral History, Betty Burnett

Women's Studies Quarterly

Since feminist historians largely concur that traditional documentation ignores, obscures, and distorts women's lives, nontraditional material logically ought to be a prime resource for women's studies scholars. Nevertheless, the collection, evaluation, and use of oral history pose a number of problems.

At several sessions, participants described the accumulation of material from almost every part of the country that needs to be organized, analyzed, and indexed. So far, oral history projects have been primarily regional and therefore not granted the prestige that national projects have received. Most of the women interviewed are "ordinary"—not well educated, not politically active ...

Notes On The Student Caucus At Kansas, Susannah Bright

Women's Studies Quarterly

Approximately 50 students from around the country attended the recent NWSA Convention in Kansas. The majority met one another for the first time at meetings of the Student Caucus there. Several major issues were identified in the course of our caucus discussions:...

The Finance Committee, Barbara Hillyer Davis

Women's Studies Quarterly

One of the many challenges to the NWSA in Lawrence came from the Association's Finance Committee, who, after a summary of the Association's financial history, made several specific recommendations based on their reflection about the relationship between our past financial behavior and our continuing effort to understand ourselves as a feminist organization. The recommendations should be the beginning of a discussion among all our members of the relationship between feminism and money.

The Finance Committee recommended that the NWSA as an organization dedicate itself to developing an attitude of fiscal responsibility in the Coordinating Council and the membership ...

Notes On The Staff Caucus At Kansas, Barbara Parker

Women's Studies Quarterly

Have you ever overheard someone refer to an office worker as "my" secretary or "my" work-study student? When the possessive pronoun is used in a feminist workplace, what does it imply about relationships? Are links between feminist practice and principle being affirmed or denied? The question of hierarchical language was one of many practical and pedagogical issues shared by staff, faculty, students, and others during the NWSA Convention.

Surviving As Women Artists: Two Art History Sessions, Nancy Porter

Women's Studies Quarterly

A month before Kansas, a long-time women's studies teacher asked me why the Convention was being held. Momentarily taken aback, I realized the answers weren't obvious—not even to me.

Organizationally, surprises can be disastrous. As an approach to the total program of the NWSA's First Annual Convention , openness to surprise served me well. Beyond my obligation to the one panel that brought me, I was free to explore the sunflower array of sessions that I came to understand revolved around a pedagogical center. In our very different styles, we came to teach, to learn, and to ...

Women's Studies Quarterly

Dear Ms. Howe:

Your Women's Studies Newsletter's report on feminism in Germany is interesting (Vol VII, No. 1, Winter 1979), but I have some problems with Ms. Zagarell's report. Although one questions in certain quarters what men have to say, one may not question as readily my devotion to research on feminism in Germany.

I have problems especially with the last paragraph's assertions (p. 26). Although some see Emma and Courage as "excellent sources of information on the German women's movement,"they are not so "on German women's lives," or the other points asserted ...

A Third World Woman's View Of The Convention, Nupur Chaudhuri

Women's Studies Quarterly

By most accepted criteria, the First NWSA Convention qualifies as a resounding success. The more than 1,000 people who attended could select from 246 sessions representing a wide range of topics in two general groups: (a) women's studies research in literature, feminist theory, art, etc.; (b) issues for women's programs and pedagogy, including teaching and curriculum administration. The Program Committee (Emily Abel, Deborah Rosenfelt, and Peg Strobel) put together an ambitious and successful series of sessions. Yet, as a feminist and a long-time supporter of women's studies, I also came away with an uneasy feeling.

Feminist Periodicals, Barbara Parker

Women's Studies Quarterly

As Kate Stimpson, of Signs, pointed out at a session on feminist periodicals that took place in Kansas, few, if any, of the current feminist periodicals can survive if people replace this year's subscription to a feminist art journal with next year's subscription to a feminist literary magazine.

Those who attended the Convention could not leave unaware of financial worries that burden every type of women's studies project. A collective groan, for example, greeted the woman who reported that her Women's Studies Program receives a budget of $9,000. While she considered that a paltry figure ...

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Women workers in the United States do not share equally in earned income with men, and the majority of female workers are employed in traditionally female occupations where the pay is also traditionally low. A socialization pattern seems to assign women certain career roles which have been traditionally female and to influence women in their professional ambitions and in making satisfying career choices. This study represents an attempt to investigate possible variables which influence women in making satisfying congruent career choices.

The relationship of sex-role classification, as measured by the Bem Sex-role Inventory (BSRI), vocational interests, as measured by the ...

NACCS Conference Programs

A New Force In Politics: The Suffragists' Experience In Connecticut, Carole Artigiani Nichols

Women's History Theses and Capstones

A great deal has been written on the women's rights movement of the early twentieth century from the perspective of its national leadership and the national suffrage organizations. Less research has focused on suffrage activities on the state level. The purpose of this essay is to examine the efforts of women in Connecticut to extend their political power; to analyze their ideas, goals, and tactics; to make some observations about feminist leadership; and to investigate the activities of politically-minded women in the years immediately following their enfranchisement.

As a result of this study, we may question the characterization of ...

Of Giving And Taking: Applications And Implications Of City Of Los Angeles, Department Of Water & Power V. Manhart, Michael Gold

Articles and Chapters

[Excerpt] This article next explores the economic implications of the various applications of Manhart. Because women outlive men, equal contributions and equal monthly benefits for counterparts make women more costly employees than men. Employers who realize this fact will be tempted to hire fewer women or to pay them less money. Equal contributions and equal monthly benefits also often mean that men must subsidize women's benefits. A man therefore can increase his compensation by working for an employer who has either no retirement plan or a severance pay plan, while a woman can increase her remuneration by working for ...

A Sampling Of Regional And Caucus Reports To The February Cc Meeting, The Feminist Press

Women's Studies Quarterly

MIDWEST REGIONAL REPORT

The Midwest has continued its efforts toward strengthening regional and national membership, adopting a constitution, and planning for the National Convention to be held in our region from May 30 to June 3, 1979, at Lawrence, Kansas . ... At the October steering committee meeting we decided to postpone a regional meeting until after the national meeting .... At the Overland Park, Kansas, steering committee meeting, April 14-15, we had hashed out the state versus regional orientation of the group, taking into account that Iowa had opted not to send a representative. We had also discussed guidelines for drawing up ...

Women's Studies Quarterly

"Oklahoma Women" was a year-long experimental seminar at the University of Oklahoma designed to teach research skills and to discover what a few women could learn in a short time about the literature and history of the women of our region. In the first semester, we did research on Oklahoma women, and in the second, public programming based on that research Students learned directly how to do research in the humani ties and did individual work on research projects and group work on the public programs. A photographic exhibit for a local conference on women's work, a community-wide series ...